1. Field of the Invention
The present application relates generally to a device for programming a lighting system, and relates more specifically to a device for automatically setting up a lighting preference for an automated programmable lighting system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Lighting systems that use radio frequency (RF) signals to communicate with lighting controls are well known. For example, a radio frequency lighting control system is described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,848,054, 5,838,226 and 5,905,442. Those patents describe a central system for controlling electrical devices such as electric lamps in a building structure from remote locations through, e.g., radio frequency links.
In those patents, a system for controlling the status of electrical device, for example, electric lamps, from a remote location via communication links such as radio frequency links, power line carrier links or infrared links, is described. The described system includes a plurality of lighting control devices such as switches and dimmers. Also included is a master control, for controlling the status, such as on, off and dimmed, of electrical devices such as lamps. A master control has a plurality of actuators for actuating various ones of the electrical load devices and transmits information to the lighting control devices for controlling the electrical loads via radio frequency links. The various lighting control devices transmit status information back to the master control concerning the status of the controlled device (e.g., lamp) that is on, off or at a set dimming level. Some control devices may not receive the information transmitted by the master control, and the master control may not receive information transmitted by the control devices, due to, e.g., interference, weak signal, poor location, etc. Accordingly, a repeater or a plurality of repeaters is placed in the building structure to ensure that two-way communication between the master control and each of the control devices is achieved. Each repeater is identified as either a master control or a normal repeater for control and transmission purposes.
The entire disclosures of U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,848,054, 5,838,226 and 5,905,442, as well as companion patents U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,905,442 and 5,982,103 are incorporated herein by reference. U.S. Pat. No. 5,848,054 describes the process of installing various devices so that they are recognized by the master control and able to communicate with the master control to achieve control of the connected lighting devices. Other programmable lighting control systems are described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/681,062, filed on Oct. 8, 2003, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,927,547 the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference. In that patent application, subnets are described that include programmable lighting devices that communicate with each other to realize a large-scale lighting control system. The subnets organize the devices into groups for ease of setup and simplified communication organization.
The prior art programmable lighting systems described in the above referenced patents and application have a manual setup in which each installed device is physically identified to a master control in a manual programming setup. A user places the lighting system in a programming mode and then operates each of the lighting control devices to obtain the physical identification to a master control. Accordingly, the user physically goes to the location of the lighting control devices and manually operates each to assign them to the master control. The lighting system is then placed in another programming mode and the user selects a button to program and again physically goes to each lighting control device and sets each in a state, or level, to be associated with the programmed button. This programming process is then repeated for each button until all desired buttons are programmed with a desired lighting condition for a button actuation. Although this setup operation works well for setting desired lighting conditions in response to button press events in the lighting system, it can be time consuming.
It would be desirable to automate the addressing and programming process to avoid the manual setup of each lighting device with the lighting control system.